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What did I hear today....

Yup, you probably guessed it. Piping....was out managing a hive today, and I pulled a frame and I heard piping. Looked at the bottom of the frame, and there was a queen cell with a new queen piping in it...it was just opened. I don't mind my hives swarming, as i am trying to help our area grow our bee population. Was very happy.

Re: What did I hear today....

Re: What did I hear today....

We just recently got the opportunity to hear a queen piping. Does it always mean they will swarm though?

We decided to re-queen a couple weeks ago and went and purchased a queen locally. We heard her piping occasional on our drive home. It's an interesting sound! It's a good thing we heard it and knew what it sounded like too, since when we got home we had a horrible time finding our old queen...until she started piping which helped us locate her.

Re: What did I hear today....

I'm no expert, but I've heard it described as more the queen is politicking to the worker bees to gain their loyalty. Despite what people say about it being rare, we've hear our queens piping often and sometimes use it to help locate her. I don't think it's always just when two queens are in the hive.

Re: What did I hear today....

The "Ick! Ick!" or sometimes "Eek! Eek!" sound is good to know about if you are trying to prevent after-swarming or trying to keep more than one queen. It is now too late to prevent swarming, as mother has usually left with the tribe about the time the queen cells were capped, but you might be able to thwart their plans - some beekeepers clip the wings of the mother queen and move her to a new box with foundation wax.

Re: What did I hear today....

Re: What did I hear today....

Earlier this summer I was checking on a hive that was superceding. I pulled out one frame to check on the queen cells I knew were there. I got there just in time to watch the queen emerge - she finished chewing her way out and crawled right onto my hand. I'd never seen that before...kinda cool. Of course, the camera was at home that day.